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Philosophies

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy is a growing perspective affected by experience, life, and knowledge.

To know my teaching philosophy, one must understand the perspective I hold for education and learning. Education is often associated with the formalized process of instruction while learning is what students gain from education. Although this is true, the line of distinction is blurred since one cannot truly happen from the other. A wildcard of the mix is that learning can and does occur outside of the education environment. The role of the “teacher” is also a concept that uses a common word to represent many aspects of a person who is advocate, coach, educator, facilitator, instructor, learner, student, teacher, and more. The teacher may be an organizer of lessons. More importantly, though, a teacher is one who becomes aware of learners’ needs and styles, and uses the best methods, theories, and tools available to promote the grasp of materials, and to gain in knowledge and skill.

Assessment and evaluation are part of the education-learning process. Discovering what a learner has gained is a process of multiple reviews that are varied in nature and application. The learner’s ability to take new knowledge and skill and apply in multiple settings is an indication that what was gained was more than rote memorization and response. Thought processes took the new to categorize and scaffold for application to related and nonrelated possibilities.

Learning is intricately intertwined in our lives. We can choose to consciously be aware of what is about us and what we experience to become wiser and better persons. Learning should be part of our daily lives just as breathing and eating. We cannot truly grow as persons unless we learn. We learn consciously and unconsciously. We learn from bad and good. We are simply beings that learn as we live. Even though there are forces that interfere with a person learning, the choice to learn allows us to gain even the smallest amount of growth and knowledge. Hopefully, student and teacher learn and share together.